What Used To Be
by pastlessness
Summary: Fran and Bel had been best friends for fifteen years but what happens when they start to feel something more towards each other. B26, One-shot, AU. Read and enjoy!


**Kay so i won't be on fanfic for much longer but i had this story in mind for a while so i wanted to write it. If you like it then please check out some of my other stories. Read and enjoy, sorry for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes! XP **

**Author Note: Some of it may seem a little confusing at first but everything should be explained later in the story.  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR!**

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"Bel wait up, you forgot your lunch and mom made it special for you." I heard my best friend Fran call out from behind me. I turn around as he walked slowly across the street, almost daring a car to come down the street and hit him. It takes him a minute to cross but I wait anyway, I'm used to it, we've been friends for 15 years already.

"Ushishishi, stop being so slow froggy, you might get run over." I called to him. I stuffed my hands in my pockets to protect them from the chilly air. Fran looked up at me; his face the same, neutral and bored.

"Wow Bel that almost sounded like you care." Fran said plainly. He just then made it over to me and handed me my lunch which I gladly took.

"No I just don't want anything to happen to my lunch." I smiled happily. To anyone else the words sounded harsh, but I knew Fran wouldn't take it that way. We were best friends after all, and probably the only ones who could stand one another. Because of Fran my dad discovered my lust for blood. And because of me, Fran's mom found that Fran could not feel pain, up to a certain point that is. We found that out the hard way when I pushed him off the slid when we were eight and he broke his arm.

"Seriously you forget your lunch every morning. Just because mom makes it doesn't mean I have to deliver it." Fran complained. Fran was a unique person in my perspective, his voice is monotone and his facial expressions are non-existent. Yet somehow I can read them, I can tell when he's bored or angry or sad and even in the rarest of moments, when he's embarrassed. Probably what I get for being friends with him for so long.

"Aw don't be such a whiney frog, It's not cute, Ushishishi." I tease him. He looked at me funny and shook his head, he's embarrassed.

"Come on, we're going to be late." He elbowed me and sped up slightly. I simply laugh and follow after him. We've always been like this and probably always will.

**LINEBREAK-Fran POV**

"Phhhssstt Fran. Fraaaaan, Fran." Bel whispered from behind me. I could feel my eyebrow twitch. I never knew why he insisted on bugging me during class.

"What." I whisper back to him. We were best friends, ever since we were little. He teases me and I tease him. I break a vase, I blame it on him. He throws a ball through a window, he blames it on me. I get good grades, and he… doesn't.

"I forgot to do my homework, let me copy yours." Be whispered urgently.

"No, it's your own fault and besides since when do you care about homework?" He really never did his homework, everything sat crumpled up in the bottom of his book bag, which never had any books in it.

"Ushishishi, since the teacher said he would fail me if I didn't pick up my grades and dad said I couldn't see you if I failed." He chuckled innocently. That struck me as odd. _Are we really so close that dad would have to use me as a punishment? Well I guess I could see it, I would be lonely if I didn't see Bel everyday… should I really be that lonely if they didn't see my best friend every day?_ I shrugged as if to answer my own question."So let me copy your homework."

"No." I hiss at him. Suddenly I felt something sharp dig into my back, I reach around and pull Bel's overly used pocket knife out of my back before folding it up and handing it back to him. Bel liked to stab everyone with his pocket knife, though he was probably on his 16th one because of how many I had broken. I didn't feel any pain from the knife due to my medical condition but the indication of it hurt sometimes.

"What's wrong froggy? Don't you want to spend time with me?" Well there we go he used froggy. He never called me froggy unless he was feeling guilty or wanted something. It was hard to tell which one it was the time.

"It's not, that it's just… the teach will know and if I let you copy off my work-" I could tell he wasn't listening to a word I said, he was just staring at me absent-mindedly. I let out an exasperated sigh and handed over my homework.

"Ushishishi, thanks Fran." He giggled happily and began jotting down answers on his own homework.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Just don't forget to write in your own words and make sure some of them are wrong otherwise teach won't believe you did it." I mumbled to him.

"Yup, thanks Fran really. Ushishishi, now we can go to a movie on Saturday." Bel said as he continued to copy my paper.

"Movie? Who said we were going to a movie? Besides it's my turn to pick what we do this weekend." I sigh and lay my head down on my desk, Bel was always so exhausting.

"Aw but there's this movie I really wanted to see." Bel whined.

"Fine then but you're paying for the popcorn." I grumble, burying my face in my arms.

**LINEBREAK-Bel POV**

"Fran, wake up. Class is over, it's time for lunch." I poke his cheek waiting for him to get up. I couldn't understand how he slept in every class and still got better grades than me. He mumbled something before sitting upright, his eyes half closed and a small trail of drool falling from the corner of his lips. I snap my fingers infront of his face repeatedly to wake him.

"What's wrong Bel?" He groaned and wiped the drool onto his sleeve.

"Class is over dummy, it's time for lunch." I pulled him out of his chair and led him to the door.

"Mr. Belphegor, a word with you please." Our teacher called out. I sighed and turned back into the class room, leaving a yawning Fran out in the hallway.

"What's up teach?"

"It's about your homework." He said as he pushed said homework towards me.

"What about it?" _Well it would figure he knew I copied off of Fran's._

"Did someone else do it for you or did you do it yourself?"

"Ushishishi, of course I did it myself and how dare you suggest otherwise." _It wasn't exactly a lie. _But either way he didn't seem like he was buying it.

"Hmm, I would question you further but I really have had enough of you and I don't want you in my class again last year. Get going before I change my mind." I grinned and turned around planning to dig into my wonderful lunch, well that was until I heard the teacher mumble something under his breath.

"What?" I spun around and cocked my head to the side.

"Hmm? Oh, I was just saying the only other reason I don't fail you from this class is because of your friend, Fran."

"What does Fran have to do with anything?"

"Well last time you were suspended from school Fran didn't do anything in class. He didn't do his homework or school work, he even failed a test. It happened every time you were sick too. Image what would happen if you were failed. I would lose my best student."

"Oh. Okay then." I blinked rapidly and left the room. I saw Fran leaning on the wall opposite the class room, his eyes closed. I didn't get it, why would Fran do that because of me? I mean were best friends, probably as close as two friends can be but still. I felt happy though, for whatever reason, I felt really happy. I walked over to Fran and tapped him on the shoulder, his eyes flew open instantly.

"What did the teacher say?" He asked and started heading for the lunch room, I followed closely behind him.

"Ushishishi, he accused me of not doing my homework." I giggled, I was still extremely happy about what the teacher said and I think Fran noticed the amount of it I was gushing out. He gave me a weird look before answering.

"I wonder why? I mean it's not like you actually did do your homework." He snorted slightly. I could tell he was smiling even if it didn't quite make it to his face.

"I'm appalled." I feign hurt and stab him softly in the shoulder with my pocket knife.

"Yeah yeah sure you are." He said and pushes away my knife.

We made our way to an empty Table; Fran sat right next to me as always. We knew it wouldn't be too long before the table would be packed full of our friends though. In the next ten minutes we were joined by Squalo, Lussuria, Mukuro, Mammon, Ken, Chikusa, Xanxus, M.M, Levi, and Chrome. They were our big group of rowdy friends; of course we weren't as close to them as we were each other. We all just put up with each other mainly.

"Vooooiii, Mammon give me back my lunch." Squalo growled as Mammon swung his lunch in front of his face tauntingly.

"Okay, for a hundred bucks." Mammon smirked wickedly.

"Vooooiii, if I had a hundred bucks I would just buy another lunch." Squalo spat.

"Um, Mammon-kun can you give Squalo back his lunch." Chrome piped up, trying to be the peace maker as always.

"No, not until he-"

"Shut up trash and give the other trash his lunch." Xanxus suddenly barked. I raised my eyebrow, since when did he stick up for anybody?

"Tch." Mammon tossed Squalo's lunch and worked on his own.

"Way to go dude, standing up for your boyfriend." Ken cheered. Squalo blushed and for once Xanxus stopped eating. "Seriously? Your dating?" Xanxus shrugged and turned back to his food while Squalo timidly began to eat his own.

"Kufufufu, can anyone say awkward?" Mukuro laughed nervously.

"Awkward." Fran suddenly spoke up, causing everyone's attention to turn to him. I was the first to burst out laughing, soon followed by the rest of our table. Fran was always the best at breaking the tension. I could see Fran look around the table at us, his eyebrows raised in amusement. "What?" He asked.

"Geez Fran it's just an expression." M.M. murmured trying to stop giggling.

"How would I know? I don't have any expressions." He said plainly causing everyone to start laughing all over again. This time I saw Fran laugh too but it was short and quiet so no one would notice, but I did. I wished Fran would show more emotions, if not to anyone else then just to me. I mean I'm his best friend right?

The bell rung in the midst of our laughing, signaling the end of lunch. We all split off to head back to class but I could but feel something tugging at the back of my mind, something about Fran. I just couldn't figure out what it was yet.

LINEBREAK-Fran POV

_Bel's been acting weird today. First He was super duper happy. Then he was fidgety and now He's been ignoring me for the past 3 hours, and he doesn't even realize it._

"Bel you passed the house already." I said as I watch him keep walking down the street. I would go after him but I figured he'd notice eventually. "Kay well I'll see you in a few hours."

I turned around and walked into the house. I took off my shoes and walked further into the house making my way to the kitchen where I knew dad to be. "Hey dad." I said as I sat down. Since I didn't have a dad and I've known Bel's since we were babies, he's the only dad I've ever known so I call him as such. It's the same with my mom, she's Bel's mom too.

"Oh, hey Fran. How was school?" He asked as he was made himself a sandwich.

"It was fine. Make me one?" I asked as I began unpacking me homework. Dad raised an eyebrow at me and smiled.

"Sure Fran. Where's Bel, he's not with you?" He asked as he handed me his sandwich and began to make another.

"No, he's been a little distracted today." I said as I began eating my sandwich. I didn't understand why he was ignoring me though. _If he had something on his mind why didn't he tell me? We're supposed to be close right? Like brothers… but not like brothers…?_

"Earth to Fran, earth to Fran. Looks like Bel's not the only one getting a little distracted today is he?" Dad smirked. "Come on, what's eating you son?"

"I don't know, nothing probably… it's just… what is my and Bel's relationship with each other? I mean I have never seen best friends as close as we are to each other and yet we don't act like brothers… so what are we?" I looked to dad for answers and to my surprise, he was still smirking.

"I don't know Fran; it's up to you and Bel to decide what your relationship is." *Slam* "Speak of the devil."

"I'm home." Bel called and walked into the kitchen. "Where's mom?"

"She's working an extra shift at the hospital. Speaking of which I have to go. Bye boys." He reached over and kissed both our heads before making his way to the door. Suddenly he stopped and looked at me. "Fran."

"Dad." He winked and nodded to Bel before leaving.

"What was that about?" Bel asked as he took a bite of my sandwich.

"Just dad being dad… hey you can talk, amazing." I said bitterly and slapped him away from my sandwich.

"Okay you're angry, why?" He asked. I gave him a 'are you serious' look before abandoning my sandwich and making my way up stairs to Bel's bedroom. We shared each other's rooms; both of our rooms had two beds and two dressers, if we weren't at mom's house we were at dads and if we weren't a dad's we were at moms. But we were always together, and that hasn't changed. _Weird that I only started thinking of this now._

"I'm not angry." I said as he walked through the door.

"Ushishishi, liar." He giggled and sat down on my bed. I sat down next to him and gave him a quizzical look.

"You're insane, you know that."

"Ushishishi, that may be but at least I'm not a liar." He smirked.

"Sure because you really did do your homework today didn't you?" Ah, the freshness of sarcasm. Got to love it.

"Okay that's different, I never lie to you."

"Yeah right, you lie to me all the time."

"Ushishishi, prove it, name one time." He giggled whole heartedly.

"Okay how about the time… or that day when you… or when…" _Wow, he really has never lied to me before has he. _"Okay so you never lie but for the record I never stab people and you do that all the time."

"That's not fair. I only stab people I don't care about." He said lightly. That stung.

"People you don't care about huh? Glad to know where I stand with you." My tone was icy, I felt frozen over in anger and yet with the heavy weight of sadness too. I stood from the bed and leave. Bel's gaping mouth, failing to work, is the last thing I see.

**LINEBREAK-Fran POV… still**

_I can't believe I… and he just… and where did… I'm screwed. Damn it, I normally wouldn't react like that. I know he didn't mean it like that but I… It hurt, more than normal. Man I thought I had put those feelings behind me. _About two years ago I thought I was in love with Bel, like really in love. But I knew he didn't feel about me in that way so I pushed them back. Swallowing them in darkness so they would never return. Now they're coming back. _It can't happen again; I pushed him away as well back then. I know I hurt him and he didn't even know why. I can't do it again… yep, I'm screwed._

I didn't know I had been walking for so long until I looked up and I was at the school. My feet had started walking and took me here, not that I minded. With nothing better to do I walked around the school to the back, knowing who I'd find there. And just as I predicted, when I rounded the corner I was greeted with the sight of a short, silver haired, smoking teen.

"You know schools over, right Gokudera?" I asked and walked over to stand beside him.

"I could ask you the same Fran." Gokudera huffed and reached in his pocket, pulling out a carton of cigarettes. He offered me one which I declined before he stuffed them back into his pocket. "Suit yourself. So what _are _you doing here?"

"My feet wanted to go on a walk, so I decided to come along." I said before I sat down, I was tired of walking. "What about you?"

"The baseball idiot's practice was running late so I came to pick him up. But the coach wouldn't let me smoke over there so I came here" He scowled.

"Oh. Hey Gokudera… you and Yamamoto are pretty close aren't you?"

"Yeah, well we've been friends for ten years so yeah. Why?" He looked down at me curiously.

"I don't know… did things ever get weird between the two of you?"

"How 'weird'?" He sat down beside me, the scent of smoke becoming stronger.

"Just… weird. I don't know how to describe it, I mean we're close, closer than a lot of best friends but we're not like brothers. So what are we?" Gokudera was always the one I let out my frustrations to, well ever since fourth grade anyway. It was the same for him but most of the time, his rants were about Yamamoto. I guess it was because we weren't exactly friends that we could tell each other that sort of stuff. Like what made us angry and what we were deeply afraid off, even if we didn't hang out we still had each other's back.

"I don't know, what do you think your relationship is?" He asked, his tone serious, as it always was when I had a real problem.

"That's just it, I _don't _know. We're friends, best friends but… that seems like a big understatement and yet saying we're brothers doesn't feel right. What else is there?"

"What do _you_ think? Fran, by any chance, do you like Bel? Like, _like _Bel?" He asked, his face sincere. I could feel my own blushing.

"A few years ago I thought I did but I knew Bel didn't feel that way so I let it go. But it doesn't feel exactly the same now as it did then. I'm not sure I like him."

"Well then, do you love him?" I choked and my face went beat red. Gokudera smirked. "I guess I just hit the nail on the head."

"I-it doesn't matter though; he doesn't feel that way about me. He would probably think it's gross and I would lose the best friend I've had for 15 years. I'm not sure I'm willing to take that risk, knowing Bel, he probably already has some girl he likes." I could feel myself tearing up but I never showed any emotion before so I didn't want to start now.

"Wouldn't you know if liked someone? You're his best friend right?" He said with a small smile.

"Gokudera, come on, practice is over." Yamamoto suddenly called as he walked around the corner of the school. "Oh, hi Fran." Gokudera stood and brushed off his pants before looking back at me.

"You might want to take that risk Fran, I did." He said before stepping over to Yamamoto and intertwining their fingers together. Yamamoto smiled brightly at that and began walking away. "Oh, hey Bel." I look up and see Bel step out from behind the school; he was oddly silent for once.

"Bel… what are you-"

"You don't get to decide that." He growled, his head was bowed and he was shaking with what was probably anger.

"Decide what?" I walked closer to him but he took a step back in return.

"You don't get to decide our relationship; you don't get to decide my feelings. You say you like me, then why not say it to me or do something about it? Is it because you think I don't like you? That's just- you don't get to decide that." He pulled out his pocket knife and threw it at me. I could feel it tear through my skin before it plunged into the ground. My arm stung but it was nothing compared to the pain Bel was forcing on me by his words. I looked behind me at the pocket knife; I had gotten it for his 16th birthday last year, which made it feel all the more worse.

"I didn't _decide_ anything! I didn't choose to feel this way! It just happened and no matter what I did it didn't go away. I hurt you then and I promised myself I would never do it again. But it's happening again. I didn't mean to, I didn't choose to. Believe me Bel." I looked at him as I failed to keep my tears in any longer. His face was sad and angry and somehow confused. He didn't move or say anything so I turned around, picked up his knife and ran. He didn't chase after me.

**LINBREAK**

I watched as Fran ran off, taking my knife with him. I was stunned to say the least. Fran liked- no, loved me and I-I had been feeling something towards Fran recently. It wasn't until I had heard Fran say it that I knew what it was. I loved Fran, maybe. I definitely felt something towards Fran and it was more the friendship or brotherhood. I just didn't know until now, but he ran off before I could find the words. I could tell he was hurt when he ran off; it made me sad to see him like that. But why do I Feel so happy right now?

"Damn." I squat down on the ground and cover my blushing face with my hand. "I really do love him."

"Hey Bel what are you doing here?" I turn around and spot Squalo and Mammon.

"Nothing." I murmured and stood up preparing to leave.

"Oh, then why are you blushing?" Mammon asked snidely.

"Ushishishi, I'm not blushing, leave me alone Mammon." I started walking away when Squalo's voice reached my ears.

"Do you like Fran?" I didn't turn around; I knew my face would give me away if I did.

"Why do you ask that?"

"Well, it's kind of obvious. I mean Fran never really shows emotion except for when you're around and you seem calmer when he's around. Of course that is just one of the many things that give you away." Mammon said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Really?" I blinked. It was so hard for me to figure out and yet Fran and everyone else already did.

"So where did Fran run of to anyway?" Squalo asked.

"I have an idea… thanks." I ran off after Fran, hearing Squalo yell 'No problem' as I left.

I ran to our neighborhood park. No one ever went there anymore but it was mine and Fran's favorite hang out when we were kids. It didn't take me long to get there. When I did I went straight for the monkey bars. I knew he would be there. When we were kids, whenever he got in trouble Fran would come to the park and climb up on the monkey bars. He would sit there for hours if I didn't go and get him. He used to say everything looked better from up there, I didn't get it but the look on his face made me not question it. His face showed happiness and determination. Just as I thought he was sitting on the monkey bars, looking out to nothing. I climbed up and balanced myself behind him. He didn't flinch.

"Hi." I said quietly.

"Hi."

"So how does it look up here?" I asked.

"Grim."

"Really? That's not what you used to say. You used to say the world looked better from up here."

"Well things change." He sapped. His voice was so angry it hurt.

"Fran-" I started.

"ENOUGH." He yelled. I felt something slash into my arm and then I was falling. I felt the ground connect with my back hard and I bit my tongue to keep myself from shouting. Fran jumped down off the monkey bars after me. He looked worried but when I sat up he looked angry again. I stood up, ignoring my stinging arm and faced him. "I don't want your sympathy, nothing can go back to how it was because I can't change my feelings and you can't return them."

When he finished his rant I leaned forward and kissed him. His eyes went wide in shock and he tried to get away. I gripped his arms tight, keeping him in place and deepened the kiss. Slowly he started to relax and kiss back. When I pulled away he slumped against me, panting.

"You don't get to decide that, I choose how I feel. So if I say I love you, I love you." I lifted his face and put our foreheads together. "Fran, I really do love you."

"I love you too Bel." He said and then finally let out his tears, crying in relief. I hugged him tight to me, I couldn't stop smiling, I was so happy.

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**Kay so this was very very cheesy and sappy. Also rushed but i hope you liked it anyway! DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT!**


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